Stories for Tomorrow – Lived Today, Everywhere

Occupying and embracing public space

Occupying and embracing public space

Active citizens in West São Paulo have revitalized a square to create a small oasis in the middle of the city.

The
increase in real estate speculation, resulting in the quiet erasure
of the history of neighbourhoods and transforming them into a sea of
large buildings, has led São Paulo natives to imagine a friendlier
city that is more intimately connected with nature and whose people
are united in solidarity. And just like that, almost incidentally,
Ocupe e Abrace (Occupy and Embrace) was born in São Paulo in 2013: a
collective that has made itself known for its revitalization of Praça
da Nascente, a 12,000 square metre public square in West São Paulo.

Not far
from a main thoroughfare, the small oasis still remains unknown even
to many residents of the neighbourhood. But it is welcoming more and
more children, youth, adults and elderly who – delighted by the
pond filled with fish raised by the collective – enjoy sitting down
and listening to the babbling water. Or they sit in silence and
reconnect with days gone by when life was slower paced and the sounds
that filled the air were those of honking horns and idling engines.
Owls, bellbirds, butterflies, bees and a dozen other pollinators have
also returned to frequent the place, for the square has also turned
into a vegetable garden for those who have decided to spend a few
hours of their day revitalizing it.

How
the idea arose

We
met at the competition for proposals for the project A
Pompéia que se Quer (A
New Image for the neighbourhood of Pompéia) promoted by the
initiative Cidade
Democrática
(Democratic City). The project for the square was one of the projects
with the most votes. And even though some of them had proposed other
things at the competition, a group began to meet and think about how
to occupy the space, which at the time was mostly abandoned”,
actress and musician Roberta Soares remembers. She was the one who
had initially proposed the project. “Our idea was to occupy the
space, but we wanted that to sound caring rather than frightening.
Thus the name Ocupe e Abrace.”

One of the
first to “embrace” the group was the architect Luciana Cury. She
hadn’t even known that the square existed, but had been very
discontent with the disappearance of family homes in the
neighbourhood and with the groundwater constantly spilling over onto
the sidewalks of the new multi-story buildings. “I was born in
Assis, in the southwest of the State of São Paulo, and I spent my
childhood and a good part of my adolescence walking around barefoot
and exchanging seasonal fruits for jellies with my neighbors,” the
architect recalls. “In the capital, few things have made me feel as
good as being able to grow my own food at home, even though I only
live in an apartment. The square has come to be an extension of my
private space – this space now being lived collectively,” she
continues.

Initial
scepticism

In the
beginning, the neighbours looked on with scepticism as the group got
together in this dirty, abandoned place. “More than once we heard
that the space wasn’t good for anything, that it wasn’t going to
work out, but we did not give up,” Cury relates.

In one
of those meetings, the idea came up to create the 1st
Festival of Praça da Nascente
in June 2013. “We were humble in planning the event, but it turned
out wonderful. There was ciranda and other dances, and we were pleasantly surprised to see how much
the people were enjoying the festivities,” Soares reports.

Since then,
there have been six more festivals borne out of solidarity,
improvisation and creativity. People pooled their money to rent
port-a-potties, microphones and speakers. “Now you see children and
families in the square at night. There was none of this before,”
says Soares. “The urban dweller needs to restore balance and return
to community life. Trust has to be re-established. It’s a way of
re-conquering [the city]“, the actress points out.

Changing
the image of the city

The personal
transformation that the intervention has brought about for each
individual involved in Ocupe e Abrace is undeniable. Throw in a few
pinches of learning, a serving of debate, new professional
perspectives and self-knowledge. As a result, all those involved have
transformed into more committed citizens.

Video
artist Andrea Pesek, who joined the collective and provided support
for the revitalization of the water source, says that it was only
here that she learned to handle water sources: “Learning about it
together with the people, with the reality of the squares,” she
emphasizes. She is convinced that it is this type of activism that
changes perspectives on the city significantly, “because you feel
like you’re playing a central role alongside other people.”

Quality of
life is key for Luciana Cury. “On Sundays all I think about is
going to the square to plant, breathe that air, meet up with people
and light a fire. It has become a program I do not want to miss,”
she says.

The water
revitalization story has also brought Andrea Pesek to other
collectives. “Ocupe e Abrace has inspired many similar projects,”
she tells us. “We will collaborate with other projects because we
want to restore the city’s water sources,” she concludes.